2005-02-02 - 5:59 a.m.
Over and over and *over* again?
Ah, Groundhog Day. Or, as we call it around here, Frantically trying to get everything done and packed for University, not helped by the fact that I have to go BACK to the copy store because I missed stuff, and it's really not on the way if I go by the Korean Grocery which is the only place in the area to get good eel Day. A good reason to celebrate, I think. On the radio this morning, they were asking people what they would pick if they had to live one day over and over again, like Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day". People were calling in with nice memories, but I wonder how they'd start to feel about that day with their friend at the parthenon in Greece if they had to live it hundreds and hundreds of times over. As your friend tells his "hilarious" story for the two hundredth time, wouldn't your hands start edging towards that cast iron paella dish? Be honest. I like "Groundhog Day"; it's a fun film, especially the bit where the groundhog is driving the truck (but you all know how I am about groundhogs and their squishability). I think the question *I* would ask is: What skills would you choose to perfect if you had to live one day (like Bill Murray, you don't get to choose which day; it would just happen) over and over again? Everyone else has no memory of the repeat, but *you* do (according to the premise of the movie) - what would you choose to do with that time spent idling in neutral? Theoretically, you have all the time in the world - what would you do with that time? Keep in mind that you *can't* feed the hungry orphans or anything like that - as you wake up each day, everything you did for someone else will have disappeared, gone back to the way it was before you tried to help. (It's sort of carte blanche to skip the nice altruistic answers that make everyone say "Hmmm - what a nice person that is; maybe they'll have sex with me" and go straight for the personal fulfillment, because skill building is the only thing that will last. Sure, you can do all sorts of nice things for people, but you'll have to do them all over again the next day, and the next...) Me? I'd learn to properly play all the instruments I like. I have a large collection of instruments, most of which I can coax a rudimentary tune from (except the violin, but I haven't taken any lessons yet), but I would love to be able to put the time in to play all of them at the proper level. I am passably competent at piano and recorder/tinwhistle, basically (extremely basically) okay at concertina and mandolin, and I can sing like nobody's business, but I'd dearly love to be able to do more. Time is my enemy - there aren't enough hours in the day to fit in all the things I'd like to do, and my arms aren't strong enough to handle the punishing physicality of some instruments (but in the endless repeat, I wouldn't wake up with the pain from the practice of the day before, which is my real problem). I'm lucky - I'm passably good at a large number of things, and there's nothing I've run into yet (that I liked doing) that I haven't been able to do with some level of success. But it would be so *cool* to play fiddle, or bodhran (I'm beat-impaired - I have an impeccable inner metronome for singing and playing most stuff, but my hands refuse to translate that to drum without a *lot* more practice) in a band. To be able to casually pick up an instrument and join in with people playing or singing. And that's the thing - I can already do the "concentrate hard, and you'll play passably well" thing - I want the effortlessness. I want to have the same ease with instruments that I have with singing. *That's* what I'd work on; how about you? Oh, and Groundhogs? Mmmm, squishy.
Dorsal - Ventral
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all words copyright Laura Mellin 2000-2005
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